segunda-feira, 30 de janeiro de 2012

"A deserted island of concrete ruins slowly crumbling away off the West coast of Japan. Travellers have long been forbidden to land there and view the secrets within its walls. But with an awesome guide and a little luck, I was able to do just that. Here’s my story."

"Gunkanjima (軍艦島) – literally ‘Battleship Island’ – is the nickname for Hashima Island (端島), named so because it has an uncanny resemblance to a military warship. Once just a small reef, the discovery of coal in 1810 led to the installation of mining facilities and eventually gave rise to a population, all densely packed into a self-contained metropolis.
But by 1974, the dream was gone. Petroleum came in place of coal, the mines were shut down and the now jobless workers were forced to leave. In a matter of days the island was deserted – everything left exactly as it was, to slumber eternally in the same position like a broken clock face. (...)"

quinta-feira, 26 de janeiro de 2012

Blink and you’ll miss it. Turning the urban landscape in on itself with installations that are almost to subtle to be noticed while passing by in an individualistic frenzy, Isaac Cordal uses the grey functionality of cement to question the lack of colour and vibrancy in so much of our lives through his tiny figures.

segunda-feira, 23 de janeiro de 2012

I have coined a new word which I'm hoping will catch on. The word is "fuv." Fuv came about due to my frustration with the phrase, "making love," specifically its inability to capture the wonderfully lusty, grunting nature of the act. I was also unsatisfied with the mono-syllabic Anglo-Saxon word commonly used to describe intercourse. That word failed miserably at describing the deep spiritual and emotional bonding that can occur during sex. But now with my new word, couples engaged in that most intimate of human activities can look into one another's eyes (assuming they're facing one another) and whisper the simple, all-encapsulating phrase, "I fuv you." And yes, they can do all that while listening to my new album of remakes of classic pop hits, including, "If Fuving You Is Wrong, I Don't Wanna Be Right" "I Feel Like Making Fuv" and the immortal, "Come Rain or Come Shine" featuring the lyric, "I'm gonna fuv you, like nobody's fuved you."

Tepeu and Gucumatz, also known as the Creators or the Forefathers wanted to be remembered, so they decided to create a race of who could worship them. First they created the earth, they made it rise from the seas. Then they shaped the surface, rising mountains and flattening plains and cover it with plants and creatures of different sizes and shapes. But they notice that the animals and plants had no voice to worship the gods, so they created the human race.

They had to start over two times before they get it right. First they made man out of mud but when the rain came they dissolved. Then, they used wood but they still didn’t get it right. These men didn’t had a soul and soon forgot about the Creators, so they drowned the wooden men and the ones who survived were turn into monkeys. Finally they decided to make the man with corn, with the grain they made arms, legs and body, for flesh used white and yellow flour.

sexta-feira, 20 de janeiro de 2012

Photography has evolved a lot since the first family portrait. Today we need to go crazy just to get our children to stop crying or to smile for less than a second but years ago, when just one photo took minutes to expose photographers had to be creative to keep them still and prevent a blurry photo. Others were just very obvious...

"Something odd seems to happen to people when they split up. They forget their own responsibility for what they contributed not only to the relationship, but also to its end. If he was a calculating bastard, she had chosen to be with him. Besides, not every broken relationship is a failure. The connection between how long a love lasts and whether it can be deemed a success is a miserable hangover from the days when divorce was seen as a matter of shame. It is unimaginative, the idea that, to be worthwhile, a relationship should endure.

Some good things do not last. Their short, intense lifespan might be a matter of days, or even a night. They may end up broken, but they are only failures in the eyes of dreary puritans. Often they were, while they lasted, small triumphs of romantic life."

The Museum of Broken Relationships grew from a traveling exhibition revolving around the concept of failed relationships and their ruins. Whatever the motivation for donating personal belongings – be it sheer exhibitionism, therapeutic relief, or simple curiosity – people embraced the idea of exhibiting their love legacy as a sort of a ritual, a solemn ceremony. In the words of Roland Barthes in A Lover's Discourse: "Every passion, ultimately, has its spectator... (there is) no amorous oblation without a final theater."

sexta-feira, 13 de janeiro de 2012

The fear of Friday the 13th is called friggatriskaidekaphobia (Frigga being the name of the Norse goddess for whom "Friday" is named and triskaidekaphobia meaning fear of the number thirteen), or paraskevidekatriaphobia a concatenation of the Greek words Paraskeví (Παρασκευή, meaning "Friday"), and dekatreís (δεκατρείς, meaning "thirteen") attached to phobía (φοβία, from phóbos, φόβος, meaning "fear"). The latter word was derived in 1911and first appeared in a mainstream source in 1953.

domingo, 8 de janeiro de 2012

Though still in bed, my thoughts go out to you, my Immortal Beloved, now and then joyfully, then sadly, waiting to learn whether or not fate will hear us - I can live only wholly with you or not at all - Yes, I am resolved to wander so long away from you until I can fly to your arms and say that I am really at home with you, and can send my soul enwrapped in you into the land of spirits - Yes, unhappily it must be so - You will be the more contained since you know my fidelity to you. No one else can ever possess my heart - never - never - Oh God, why must one be parted from one whom one so loves. And yet my life in V is now a wretched life - Your love makes me at once the happiest and the unhappiest of men - At my age I need a steady, quiet life - can that be so in our connection? My angel, I have just been told that the mailcoach goes every day - therefore I must close at once so that you may receive the letter at once - Be calm, only by a calm consideration of our existence can we achieve our purpose to live together - Be calm - love me - today - yesterday - what tearful longings for you - you - you - my life - my all - farewell. Oh continue to love me - never misjudge the most faithful heart of your beloved.

While sitting on Brighton beach (England) back in 2005 with my new girlfriend Verity I suddenly thought the view of our feet pointing out to sea would make a nice photo. Ever since then, we’ve continued to document our travels in this way, resulting in a collection of over 90 photos. In 2011 the series took a new twist with the arrival of a third set of feet – our daughter Matilda.